JA’s head was badly aching when she woke up in the morning. It was past eight already and she felt so hungry. She went to the bathroom and took a shower. She looked at the mirror only to see that she had puffy and swollen eyes.
She remembered, she was crying so hard last night after recalling the painful memories of the past.
She went downstairs and looked for Nanny.
“Good morning darling, how do you feel right now? Are you okay?”, Nanny asked while preparing her breakfast.
“I’m fine Nanny, but my head is aching so bad”, she responded.
Nanny took medicine from the cabinet and gave it to her.
“You take this, after eating. Then go back to sleep.”, Nanny said.
After eating, JA went to her music room. At times like this, when she is sad and lonely, all she needs to do is play the piano and strum her guitar and ukulele. After that, she will be relieved.
Music is already a part of her life since she was still very young. She inherited her talent in music from her father.
She was still five years old when her parents discovered her talent in singing. They encouraged her to pursue her singing career. She always dreamed of becoming a professional singer, but suddenly she lost interest when something bad happened.
After one hour of music therapy, she went inside her room. She reached out for her cellphone and logged in to her Facebook account. She saw there were plenty of missed calls from those she randomly accepted. Some were sending her nude pictures and porn videos. It was so annoying for her, so she blocked all those senders.
She just shook her head thinking that those people with abnormal sexual behaviors have nothing to do with their lives.
She continued scrolling until she saw another post from Zacky. She reacted to her post since she is her Facebook friend and it’s normal to react to a friend’s post.
She found out that Zacky is a writer on a certain reading platform. She clicked the link and she was directed to her story. She noticed that Zacky has a unique username because it suggests a deep meaning. She read her work and she was amazed at her writing skills. She voted for her story and left a comment.
After some time, Zacky replied.
“Thank you so much, dear”
JA was wondering why Zacky called her ‘dear’.
Suddenly she remembered the man in her dreams calling her ‘dear’ too.
“But what’s wrong with that? Zacky is a girl and maybe that’s her way of addressing her followers and readers”, the other side of her brain told her.
She tried to erase those thoughts and went back to Facebook.
But she had a feeling of sending a message to Zacky in messenger.
As they were exchanging messages, she noticed, she was not calling her “Ate” like the first time they chatted with each other, instead, she was calling her “Miss”.
She felt sudden strange, so she asked her.
“The one you had chatted with last time, was my sister and she was 15 years old that’s why she called you “Ate”, Zacky’s message.
JA was a little bit confused.
“So, who are you then?” she asked.
Zacky’s message:
“I am her brother, I am the writer one, and I am 18 years old.”
JA smiled upon reading the message. She shook her head because this is not her first time encountering a sudden shift of personality.
But still, she had this strange feeling. She never felt like this before. So since Zacky is a guy, she had to use ‘masculine’ pronouns.
They talked about a lot of things until she mentioned to him that she is a psychologist.
She knew that Zacky was interested in her and she feels the same too. Their conversation lasted for long hours until she bid goodbye to him because she still have to attend her class at Bannister Academy.
************
At night, JA feels like she wanted to sleep early because she was so tired and she wanted to relax.
Suddenly her phone rang. It was a call from Trixie.
“Hello Trixie, hi how are you?”, she greeted.
She heard her sobbing and she got so worried.
“JA, Ace is breaking up with me”, Trixie sobbed.
“What? But why would he do that?”
“Ace is still in love with you JA. He doesn’t love me even just a little bit”
She was shocked upon hearing it and she feels so sad for Trixie. After all, she is her best friend.
They became friends when JA was in her first-year college that time while Trixie was in her fourth year.
Since JA’s family moved to Manila, she stayed aloof to everybody. But Trixie tried to approach her one time when she was in the library. That was the beginning of their friendship. She shared everything to her, except her top secret. She did not tell her about her ability to read minds because she doesn’t want something bad will happen to her. Trixie has been good to her throughout the years of their friendship until she was not able to control her feelings for Ace.
And now, she is crying out loud, because he broke up with her.
“Oh I’m sorry Trix, I swear I did not do anything to ruin your relationship”, JA said.
“I know JA, only that he can’t get over you. He still loves you”, she said with a cracked voice.
JA doesn’t know how to comfort her when she is the reason for their breakup.
She got pity on her. It’s really not easy to accept that the person you love, doesn’t love you back.
“Don’t worry Trix, I’ll talk to Ace, okay?”, she said.
“Please JA, I know it’s too much to ask, but you’re the only person who can tell Ace about it”
She gave Trixie the assurance that she would do anything to save their relationship and she told her not to lose her hope and everything will be alright.
After some time, they said goodbye to each other.
**********
JA looked out the window to see if her brother’s car was already in the garage. As soon as she saw it, she started to lie down in bed.
She was pondering deep in the night, sitting on a swing under the pale moonlight. A cool breeze blew across her skin, and she could hear nothing but the chirping of the birds in a sycamore tree. She listened to their songs like a sweet symphony to her ears, having a relaxing and calming effect on her life full of stress.
Suddenly, a man appeared, staring and smiling at her from a distance. He came closer to her and took her hand to dance with him.
“It’s you again”, she said softly.
He did not respond, but they continued to dance with his hands on her waist and her arms around his neck. She felt his soft and gentle touch as their bodies were closed to each other.
“Is it you Ryle?”, she asked.
He paused for a while and looked at her with piercing eyes that cuts deeply into her heart and soul. She stepped back but he held her and kept her in his arms.
“Still, you don’t know me dear?”, he whispered
She tried to look at the man in front of her but his face was still blurry.
“Who are you?” she asked.
He gently smiled.
“Don’t look at my face, just feel me in your heart”, he said softly while his hands took some strands of her hair that were covering her face.
She was still confused.
“Who are you? Could you please tell me your name?”, she uttered.
“We met already, a while ago dear”, he said.
She turned away and started to walk as fast as she could but he held her hand and she fell into his warm embrace, into his arms.
“Why you’re doing this to me? Why do you continue to appear in my dreams, if you don’t want to let me know you?”, she asked desperately.
“We met already dear, haven’t you realized it?”
“I’ll be here for you dear, I’ll promise. I’ll not gonna leave you. Never”, he said as the masculine figure slowly disappeared.
“Ryle, it’s you. Ryle. Please come back…!”
She suddenly woke up. That was just a dream.
She took a glass of water and started recalling everything he said.
“Why did he say we met already? where?”
JA couldn’t get back to sleep because her mind was fully occupied by the thoughts about the man in her dreams.
She stood up and opened her laptop. She started to write a poem. It’s been a long time since she had not written a poem and she didn’t know if she could still make it.
MAN IN MY DREAMS
As I laid my body into a deep slumber,
I saw him there, appearing somewhere,
Somewhat obscure, his face was blurry,
But I saw him glaring at me.
.
He was standing there, smiling at me,
With the sweetest smile, a woman could ever see,
My heart kept pounding, thudding unexpectedly,
As he drew nearer, closer to me.
We found ourselves dancing at our best,
With my arms around his neck, while his hands around my waist
He kept on glaring, no words spoken,
Just the beating of our hearts in the moment of silence.
She paused for a while because she felt a strange feeling. The same feeling when she was
talking to Zacky in messenger.
“Have we met already?”
She asked herself so many times if it was Ryle or another person. Because Ryle never calls her dear. Only her mom calls her like that. And…
Zacky, the writer one.
“Is he the man in my dreams?”